Satan in Goray

victorious.
    Incomprehensible things occurred everywhere. Vagabonds who wandered from town to town and from land to land told of a hail of flintstones that had fallen in Bohemia. During a rainstorm in Turkey a gigantic snake had slithered from the sky, overwhelmed a number of cities, and killed many Jew- haters. In Shebreshin a water carrier had heard a heavenly voice, and in Pulav a fish had cried, "Hear, 0 Israel!" while being scaled in honor of the Sabbath eve dinner. Some had heard a voice from MountHoreb crying, "Return, 0 my wayward children!" A sinful leech, to whom this heavenly voice came three times running, deserted his wife and children, girded sackcloth on his loins, and went into exile. He lay down on the threshold of the study house in every town he came to, and all who entered or left had to step on him and spit in his face, while he, sobbingly, confessed all his misdeeds. A great deal of emphasis was placed on the fact that in these dreadful times, when Jews were being tormented and driven out of town after town, the number of converts from Christianity increased in every land. Very often, converts had themselves circumcized secretly and took on the yoke of the holy teachings, despite the harsh punishment this brought. These were all distinct omens that an end was coming to the long, dark night of servitude, and that the time of liberation was drawing near.
    But people most often spoke of one great and holy man, Sabbatai Zevi, who was said to be the one for whom Israel had been waiting these seventeen hundred years and who would be revealed in a short time. Some insisted that he was Messiah, the son of Joseph, who, as the holy volumes indicated, was to be killed as the precursor of the true Messiah; others argued that Messiah, the son of Joseph, had already come in the person of one Reb Abraham Zalman, who had perished in Tishevitz, martyred for the sanctification of God's name, and that Sabbatai Zevi would be the true Messiah, the son of David. Various rumors concerning him were passed around. Some said that he dwelt in a palace in Jerusalem, others that he hid with his disciples in a deep cave; some knew as a fact that he rode daily on a silk-saddled horse with fifty runners before him--others, that he fasted from Sabbath to Sabbath and wracked his body with the most severe torments. Every emissary brought another story. A Frank who had wandered to Lublin swore that Sabbatai Zevi was as tall as a cedar, wore gold, silver, and precious stones, and that it was impossible to look at his face because of its brilliance. A Talmud scholar from some distant place revealed that Sabbatai Zevi was involved in a controversy with the rabbis, and that they had laid a ban on him, for blasphemy. People also had much to say about Sarah, the girl from Poland, who having fled the Cossacks had prophesied that she was destined to be the Messiah's wife--and had married Sabbatai Zevi. While some declared she was modest and God-fearing, others whispered that she had been a whore.
    Rabbi Benish knew of these rumors and tales, but he heeded the verse in Amos: "Therefore the prudent doth keep silence in such a time"--and he kept silent. As long as Rabbi Benish dwelt in Lublin he pretended to hear nothing. For many years he had known that Polish Jewry was taking the wrong path. They delved too deeply into things that were meant to be hidden, they drank too little from the clear waters of the holy teachings. The study of the Bible and Hebrew was looked down upon. The early commentators were rarely read. Young men, confused by the twists and turns of pilpul, sought to resolve a hundred dilemmas with one answer; they scorned true learning, as child's play. Boys not yet twenty, still young in understanding, were already poring over mystical works, like the Treasury of Life, and Raziel the Angel, and the Zohar, and the interpretations of the mysteries of the Divine Chariot in the Book of Ezekiel. Men deserted their families and wandered through the world, purifying their souls by exile; boys of thirteen immersed themselves in cold baths. There were too many ascetics among Polish Jewry, too many recluses, amulet writers, and wonder workers. Himself a student of philosophy, well versed in The Guide for the Perplexed, and the Cuzari, and the Duties of the Heart, and Principia, Rabbi Benish deplored the cabalistic works of Rabbi Isaac Luria; in his opinion they were contradictory and lewd. Before 1648, when at home in Goray, Rabbi